Land & Environment
Land cover classification, soil landscapes, natural subregions, and ecologically significant areas across Alberta.
View land cover classification on the interactive mapAlberta Ground Cover Classification Mosaic
Government of Alberta
The Alberta Ground Cover Classification Mosaic is a province-wide land cover raster dataset at 25-metre resolution, classifying terrain into categories such as forest, cropland, wetland, water, urban, and barren land. Created by merging the Alberta Ground Cover Classification (AGCC) for vegetated/forested areas with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's agricultural land cover data. Based on satellite imagery collected between 1999 and 2002.
- •Identifying baseline land use conditions for Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments.
- •Determining vegetation cover types for habitat impact assessments and remediation planning.
- •Supporting wildfire risk assessment near oil and gas facilities.
- •Evaluating land use changes and disturbance footprints for reclamation certificate applications.
Rendered as a styled raster overlay with a categorical legend. Clicking on the map when the layer is visible queries the underlying raster pixel value and displays the land cover class at that location.
AGRASID v4.1
Government of Alberta (via Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)
AGRASID (Agricultural Region of Alberta Soil Inventory Database) v4.1 provides digital soil landscape and land system data for Alberta's agricultural region at 1:100,000 scale, comprising 28,366 soil polygons. Each polygon contains detailed soil component data including soil order, great group, drainage class, texture, and Land Suitability Rating System (LSRS) ratings. Compiled by standardizing and digitizing historical soil surveys dating back to 1925.
- •Evaluating soil contamination pathways and natural attenuation capacity during Phase 2 ESAs.
- •Determining soil drainage class for groundwater vulnerability assessments.
- •Assessing agricultural land capability for reclamation planning and equivalent land capability assessments.
- •Identifying soil texture and permeability for contaminant transport modelling.
Displayed as soil polygons color-coded by soil order with configurable category visibility and labels. The Reconnaissance Tool queries AGRASID at a clicked location to return detailed soil component breakdown including soil order, drainage class, and percent coverage.
Natural Regions and Subregions
Government of Alberta
Alberta's Natural Regions and Subregions dataset defines the province's ecological classification system at 1:250,000 scale, dividing Alberta into 6 natural regions and 21 subregions based on vegetation, soils, landforms, climate, and physiographic features. This is the official 2005 classification used across provincial government programs for ecological stratification.
- •Establishing ecological context for environmental impact assessments and baseline reports.
- •Identifying applicable reclamation criteria and target plant communities based on subregion.
- •Determining reference conditions for contaminated site assessments using subregion-specific guidelines.
- •Supporting habitat classification and wildlife management planning.
Rendered as subregion polygons with configurable color coding and labels. Included in the Reconnaissance Tool output to provide ecological context when characterizing a site location.
How consultants use these layers
- 1Characterizing soil types and drainage classes for contaminant transport modelling and remediation design.
- 2Identifying the natural subregion to determine appropriate revegetation species and reclamation criteria.
- 3Assessing land cover to understand current land use and potential receptors near a project site.